Viggo Widerøe
Encyclopedia
Viggo Widerøe was a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

. He founded Widerøe's Flyveselskap
Widerøe
Widerøe's Flyveselskap AS, trading as Widerøe, is a regional airline in Norway and part of the SAS Group. It operates a fleet of 34 Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft , serving 41 domestic and 6 international destinations...

, Norway's third largest airline, in 1934. The airline is still in operation today.

Personal life

Viggo Widerøe was born in Kristiania
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 as a son of Theodor Widerøe (1868–1947) and Carla Johanne Launer (1875–1971). He was a brother of noted engineer Rolf Widerøe, and grew up at Vinderen
Vinderen
Vinderen is a neighbourhood in the Vestre Aker borough of Oslo, Norway. It was a separate borough until 1 January 2004, when it was incorporated into the newly established borough of Vestre Aker....

. In 1935 he married Solveig Agnes Schrøder (1914–1989); they had the daughter Turi Widerøe
Turi Widerøe
Turi Widerøe was Norway's first female air transport pilot. The daughter of aviator Viggo Widerøe, she was originally educated as a book designer. She later took a pilot's education, and, employed by Scandinavian Airlines System, became the first female pilot in a larger airline in the western world...

. Through her, Viggo Widerøe was the father-in-law of Karl Erik Harr
Karl Erik Harr
Karl Erik Harr is a Norwegian painter, illustrator, graphic artist and author, best known for his representations of Northern-Norwegian scenery and coastal history.-Background:...

 between 1972 and 1975.

Career

Reportedly, Viggo Widerøe decided to become an aviator already in 1910. This was one year after the start of aviation in Kristiania. In 1924, Widerøe joined the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service
Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service
The Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service was alongside the Norwegian Army Air Service the forerunner to the modern-day Royal Norwegian Air Force.- History :...

 and received a pilot's licence the following year. He became a conscript pilot for the NoAAS until 1 January 1928, when he was appointed officer. Widerøe took his civilian pilot's licence on 13 June 1930 with Norske Luftruter and worked for the company until the end of summer of 1930. Two years later, Viggo Widerøe bought John Strandrud's shares in Rundflyvning, that was based in Drammen
Drammen
Drammen is a city in Buskerud County, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the eastern and most populated part of Norway.-Location:...

, and started as a pilot. In 1933, Viggo Widerøe established the company Widerøe & Bjørneby along with Halvor Bjørneby and bought a Simmonds Spartan
Simmonds Spartan
|-See also:-External links:*...

. In all these companies, activity was concentrated at aerial photography
Aerial photography
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...

, advertisement flying, air shows, demonstrations and charter passenger flights. Widerøe lay much emphasis on increasing the public interest in aviation throughout South Norway
South Norway
South Norway is the southern third of Norway, consisting of the regions Vestlandet, Østlandet and Sørlandet. South Norway has no administrative functions, and does not constitute a cultural or linguistic region - as opposed to Central Norway/Trøndelag and particularly North Norway...

, and arranged flight shows in 1933 and 1934 together with Norsk Aero Klubb.

On 19 January 1934, Viggo Widerøe founded the company Widerøe's Flyveselskap along with his brother Arild Widerøe and Einar Isdahl. They raised and Viggo went to the United States where he bought a Waco Cabin that he flew home himself. Postal services started on the 18. June on the route Oslo – Kristiansand – Stavanger – Haugesund, making Viggo the first person to fly a scheduled, domestic flight in Norway. In 1936, all concessions
Concession (contract)
A concession is a business operated under a contract or license associated with a degree of exclusivity in business within a certain geographical area. For example, sports arenas or public parks may have concession stands. Many department stores contain numerous concessions operated by other...

 for scheduled flights were transferred to Det Norske Luftfartselskap
Det Norske Luftfartselskap
Det Norske Luftfartselskap A/S or DNL, trading internationally as Norwegian Air Lines, was an airline and flag carrier of Norway. Founded in 1927, it operated domestic and international routes from 1935 to 1941 and from 1946 to 1951...

 (DNL), and Widerøe had to start again with photography, schools and charter flights. But at the same time, DNL bought 51% of Wideøe's Flyveselskap, and they were subcontracted some postal flights. In the winter of 1936–1937, Viggo attended an expedition by Lars Christensen
Lars Christensen
Lars Christensen was a Norwegian shipowner and whaling magnate with a keen interest in the exploration of Antarctica.-Career:...

 in the Antarctic
Antarctic
The Antarctic is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence...

 with the goal to take aerial photography of the continent's coast. About 80000 square kilometres (30,888.2 sq mi) were covered.

In 1937, a personal tragedy struck as Arild Widerøe and other family members lost their lives in an air accident at the Port of Oslo. Two years later, civil aviation was put on hold due to hardships with supply of fuel. Nonetheless, Widerøe provided flight training for exiled Finns during their Winter War
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...

 of 1939. In 1940, Norway was invaded by Germany as a part of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Viggo joined Milorg
Milorg
Milorg was the main Norwegian resistance movement in World War II....

, part of the Norwegian resistance. He helped young Norwegian men to flee the country to become war pilots based in foreign countries. Soon, he became suspect in the eyes of German forces. He was arrested for "spying" in May 1941, and was imprisoned at Møllergata 19
Møllergata 19
Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here...

 for two months. He was sentenced to death, but this was converted to ten year of prison after he held his speech of defence in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

. He was transferred to Grini concentration camp in July 1941, as #352 of almost 20,000 prisoners. Another aerial pioneer Helge Skappel
Helge Skappel
Helge Sommerfelt Skappel was a Norwegian aviator, photographer and cartographer. He was among the early aviation company owners in Norway, and later became known as a photographer in Widerøe from 1934 to 1975, except for four years during World War II when he was imprisoned in concentration camps...

 was imprisoned as well, and they spent prison time in Åkebergveien from October to November 1941, before being shipped to Germany via Akershus Fortress
Akershus Fortress
Akershus Fortress or Akershus Castle is a medieval castle that was built to protect Oslo, the capital of Norway. It has also been used as a prison.- Construction :...

. He was imprisoned in Hamburg-Fühlsbuttel from 13 January 1942, and later three other camps in Rendsburg
Rendsburg
Rendsburg is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the northeastern part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the Kreis of Rendsburg-Eckernförde. As of 2006, it had a population of 28,476.-History:...

, Dreibergen and Dieburg
Dieburg
Dieburg is a town in southern Hessen, Germany. It was formerly the seat of the district of Dieburg, but is now part of the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg.-History:...

 until he was liberated in March 1945. For the rest of the war, he worked as a secretary and interpreter for the American General George Patton. His wife was also involved in Norwegian resistance work.

After the war, Widerøe was employed as assisting director in the Norwegian Aviation Authority from 1945 to 1946. He then became chief inspector of DNL, and then became one of the first Norwegian employees when Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines or SAS, previously Scandinavian Airlines System, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the largest airline in Scandinavia....

 (SAS) was established, after he had moved to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 in Sweden. In SAS, he mainly worked with headhunting people for the new company. In 1947, DNL sold its stake in Widerøe's Flyveselskap to Forenede Industrier. Viggo was headhunted to become managing director, a position he held until 1969. But he continued to also work as a pilot for the company until 1954, when he took last flight. He also flew secret reconnaissance missions in Finnmark
Finnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...

 for the Norwegian Intelligence Service
Norwegian Intelligence Service
Etterretningstjenesten or the Norwegian Intelligence Service is a Norwegian military intelligence agency under the Chief of Defence and the Ministry of Defence....

, as a part of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, and was in charge of a military aviation school at Hønefoss Airport, Eggemoen from 1950 to 1952.

He was decorated with the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1954, and Mount Widerøe
Mount Widerøe
Mount Widerøe is a large mountain rising to 3,180 m between Mount Walnum and Mount Nils Larsen in the Sør Rondane Mountains on the continent of Antarctica.-Discovery and naming:...

 in Antarctica was named after him. On the other hand, Viggo never made much money from starting the company. He was in debt until the 1980s, and by the 1990s, he only had shares for NOK 3,000. After retirement, Viggo remained in Oslo during the summer, but spent his winters in L'Alfàs del Pi
L'Alfàs del Pi
L'Alfàs del Pi is a Valencian town and municipality located in the comarca of Marina Baixa, in the province of Alicante, Spain, lying at the foot of Serra de Bèrnia....

in Spain. He died in January 2002 in Oslo.
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